Antifragile is a standalone book in Nassim Nicholas Taleb's landmark Incerto series an
investigation of opacity luck uncertainty probability human error risk and
decision-making in a world we don't understand. The other books in the series are Fooled by
Randomness The Black Swan Skin in the Game and The Bed of Procrustes. Nassim Nicholas Taleb
the bestselling author of The Black Swan and one of the foremost thinkers of our time reveals
how to thrive in an uncertain world. Just as human bones get stronger when subjected to
stress and tension and rumors or riots intensify when someone tries to repress them many
things in life benefit from stress disorder volatility and turmoil. What Taleb has
identified and calls "antifragile" is that category of things that not only gain from chaos but
need it in order to survive and flourish. In The Black Swan Taleb showed us that highly
improbable and unpredictable events underlie almost everything about our world. In Antifragile
Taleb stands uncertainty on its head making it desirable even necessary and proposes that
things be built in an antifragile manner. The antifragile is beyond the resilient or robust.
The resilient resists shocks and stays the same the antifragile gets better and better.
Furthermore the antifragile is immune to prediction errors and protected from adverse events.
Why is the city-state better than the nation-state why is debt bad for you and why is what we
call "efficient" not efficient at all? Why do government responses and social policies protect
the strong and hurt the weak? Why should you write your resignation letter before even starting
on the job? How did the sinking of the Titanic save lives? The book spans innovation by trial
and error life decisions politics urban planning war personal finance economic systems
and medicine. And throughout in addition to the street wisdom of Fat Tony of Brooklyn the
voices and recipes of ancient wisdom from Roman Greek Semitic and medieval sources are
loud and clear. Antifragile is a blueprint for living in a Black Swan world. Erudite witty
and iconoclastic Taleb's message is revolutionary: The antifragile and only the antifragile
will make it. Praise for Antifragile "Ambitious and thought-provoking . . . highly
entertaining."-The Economist "A bold book explaining how and why we should embrace
uncertainty randomness and error . . . It may just change our lives."-Newsweek
